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The dotted outline is the position the mount moves to if you keep the rear bolt hole in place and rotate it clockwise to the point where a fresh front bolt hole can be drilled in the bottom left corner as opposed to the top corner. If you see what I mean...

It measures as (about) 82mm between the bolt holes and 174 from the rear one to the can mount. 2" movement at the end would therefore need about 1" at the top. There might be just enough meat on it to do that. With a little relocation of the rear hole too I reckon it might just work...

Al

Al, just a quick thanks for the idea. For some reason this hanger already had a second set of holes drilled in it (presumably just to lift it slightly) but enabled me to try your suggestion which has worked a treat

Not a lot of progress with the project bike lately for a number of reasons. Having embraced the Honda Britain scheme I am now waiting on a set of decals to be produced and am also trying to get a set of wheels done in HRC(esq) gold. The wheels are currently in for blasting and then, hopefully, the painter at work says he can spray them for me….just got to see if we can order the YR502P needed. Once I get the decals fitted the same guy will also throw a coat or two of clear coat over everything at the end.
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So my garage looked like this until I tucked the project bike away in the shed to give me a bit more space to give the ‘every day’ NC30, a bit of loving, servicing and prep for Cadwell Park next weekend.

Idle hands lead to excessive internet surfing and recurring ideas of a third NC30. Due to this I suddenly had a full on plan to buy another NC30 and collect it whilst back in the UK for the Classic Bike track day. Now along with this my son (27 years old) has just got his first big bike (CBR600) and I thought I could do the cool Dad thing and offer him the chance to get on the track using the 3rd NC30 I was planning to be collecting at Cadwell . Track day offered up, readily accepted and off he went sorting out a set of RST leathers in anticipation. Some say he wears his leathers to bed....all we know is...he is called ..Jake

About this point the wheels started to fall of plan A slightly. Whilst the bike I was looking at was a cracking deal and a great start point for a project, it was just that – a good start point and not ready to be put on the track. It wouldn’t need much and we even thought about trying to do the work required in the paddock on the Saturday evening before my sensible head kicked in. This is going to be Jakes first time on an NC30 and first time on a track, as such I need to make sure that whatever he is on was in as good a condition as it could possibly be. The only way I could do this is if I had had my hands on the bike and prepped it myself. Here begins Plan B

The bike that I know is 100% and ready for the track is……funny old thing the one I am riding around on and was planning to use at Cadwell myself. So plan B was that we could work this if we were riding in different groups and hot swapping the bike between sessions. However, I had also asked if he wanted to go in the Novice group or with us in the Inters. He had said it would be cool to ride with me and the rest of the crowd (before people changed to the fast group) so plan B wasn’t going to work and we were onto plan C.

Plan C was back to needing two bikes, but having only my daily ride and the project bike, the only way to achieve this was to finish off all the little jobs on the project bike, and bring that as my ride, effectively giving it a shakedown on the track. Certainly not ideal or my first choice, but hey ho – Plan C it is.

The Chinese Rothmans fairings were removed from my bike and that was refitted with my original fairings which, post an unplanned diversion through a Lincolnshire hedge in about 2007 became my track day fairings and have done many a lap at Cadwell. Easy peasy – Jobs a good ‘un bike ready to go.

Onto the project bike. All the Silhouette fairings were removed and tucked away safe and a few little jobs that had still been on the “to do” list were mopped up over a few evenings. Mechanically finished (I hope) so onto getting it dressed. Decided this one will be wearing the Chinese Rothmans fairings that came of the other bike so started to fit them. Hmmm problem! Where I’d had a problem with the clearance between the Ethos system and the Silhouette lower, with the Chinese fairings it was much worse with the exhaust pressing hard against the bottom right of the lower fairing and also at the back just before the exhaust exists up the side of the bike. That was end of play on Friday and with a full weekend ‘socializing’ I wasn’t going to get back in the garage for a couple of days, and was thinking at this point I would either have to swap the fairings, or think about swapping the exhaust….which was not an appealing prospect.

A couple of days out of the garage let the problem fermenting slowly in the back of my head. I had a couple of ideas and having acquired a few metal offcuts from the bin at work was contemplating trying to build some sort of heat shield for the belly pan. Sometimes walking away from a problem for a while is the best solution as when you come back to it you have fresh ideas how to solve it. Back into the garage last night to have another think and it quickly became obvious that the best way to solve the belly pan problem was to extend the opening in the bottom, removing the problem and giving the exhaust the space required. The required trimming was marked up and out came the faithful Dremmel.
Just started cutting but you can see how much I am removing here.

…and finaly removed and tidied up a bit:

I also knocked up a simple heat shield for the back of the belly pan with the slight lip at the front holding the pipes off slightly and the rest just acting as a heatshield / joining piece. All refitted and thankfully it works.

Went to fire the bike up and suddenly the new speedo has ALL the lights on and the L/H switch gear doesn’t work at all------Arghhhhh! Fairings back off and after much poking around I find that the problem is the earth cable from the L/H switch gear. Although well secured it doesn’t seem to be making a good earth. Check cable (ok), check crimp attachment of ring (ok) hold ring against engine mounting bolt…..everything works as it should…Yayyyy. Refitted, tightened and ….nothing. Hmmm! Off again and after trying a couple of different earth points finally found one it seemed to like, so fastened it on and checked it - success. Fairings back on again.

So in theory the bike is now ready to ride, but really could use a couple of gentle runs just to check everything and scrub the tyres in a little bit Slight problem is that the bike is not MOT’d or insured yet so can’t really take it out for the sort of shakedown I would like to. Decided I would at least take it down the back roads to the petrol station and check the tyre pressures. I set off and the first thing I noticed was how much higher your feet are with racing rear sets fitted . Next thing I noticed was how rough and lumpy the bike was running, almost like fuel starvation, and how unstable it felt . Riding to the petrol station I was already contemplating in my head going back to Plan B so we could both use the other bike in different groups.

A quick tyre pressure check at the petrol station revealed 2.0 Bar in the front and just 0.7 Bar in the rear!!! Tyres topped up and funny old thing the handling suddenly felt much better .On the way home there is a decent straight stretch of dual carriageway and as the bike had had chance to warm up properly I decided to wind it on a bit to see what happened. Well it was lumpy, juddered and then suddenly took off like a scalded cat. I gave it couple more hard acceleration stints and it seems to have “cleared its throat”. Maybe it just need to blow some fuel through the new carbs – fingers crossed.

I didn’t have the chance to do anymore last night so hoping the weather is ok when I get home and I can go give it another gentle run around (with the odd squirt) to start and build up some confidence in it. As such this is how the Garage currently stands with the toys we are bringing to Cadwell.

Well unfortunately it was a false dawn and having got home early enough to take it out for another run….it definitely runs like a bag of spanners.

It would rev quite happily on the stand but as soon as it was under load it was as if it was fuel starved and would not rev past about 9k and it was even struggling to get to there. The tank/fuel tap that were fitted came of my everyday bike so I know they are good and checked the good old vacuum pipe….all good.

If I had just put a new CDI on and suddenly got an issue, there is a good chance would be the CDI. However, having changed just about everything as part of the build this actually just added to the problem of trying to narrow down the issue. Thankfully with many spares on the shelf I was able to swap out the new Ignitech CDI with the OEM unit and try again to see if the mapping data was corrupt. No change

Next I swapped out my new trick carbs with my spare standard set – no change.

Having done this, I came to the conclusion it had to be an issue with the coils/HT leads/ignition side of things so started to dig into the bike to get to the coils, HT leads and plugs. When I went to remove the carbs (again) I realized that in my haste to go testing I had forgotten to tighten the clamps on the rubbers, so although the carbs were well seated they could in theory have been sucking in air causing the problem. I could have just refitted the carbs, properly and given the bike another check, but as I was already well dug into the bike I decided to keep going and give the ignition side of thins a good check before putting it all back together again. Sorry no photos as I was on a mission trying to get the bike running for Cadwell.

Rubber flappy thing removed for access, and all plugs checked for cleanliness and colour….check. Coils now checked for primary and secondary windings resistance…check. One of the HT leads seemed a bit loose in its connection within the suppressor cap so I trimmed about ¼” of the end and reseated it. Having done it for that one, whilst I was at it, I did the same for all the HT leads at both the coils and suppressor cap ends. Resistance checks redone and again…all good. Although the coil mounting bolts were running fine in the holes, a ran a tap through them all to check they were properly clean in case there was still some rouge plastic coating in the holes causing an intermittent earthing issue.

Coils refitted, Plugs refitted and HT leads fitted to plugs. I went to refit the rubber flappy thing and no matter how I tried I could not fit it without unbolting the top radiator and letting it lean forward slightly for access. This was very curious as I had managed to remove it (with some difficulty) with the radiator in situ so I am not sure if it just one of those weird things that works one way, but not the other or if although fitted, it wasn’t actually in the correct orientation. Anyway, flappy thing refitted properly, radiator refitted, trick carbs back on and rubbers tightened properly this time. Finally, the old CDI was swapped back to the Ignitech unit I have. Tank and seat unit only fitted just to get a feel if there was any progress and off I went for a quick run in my overalls, helmet and gloves.

Not sure exactly what it was, but it is safe to say that somewhere amongst the various little bits that were tinkered with or tweaked lay the problem as the bike certainly ran properly now……. it went very well!!! Having scared myself slightly it was back home to fit the rest of the fairings. No time to get out that evening so the next morning, fully booted and suited I took it out for a check run. I was going to go for my usual run through the Eifel National Park, to check the bike out, actually get a feel for it before Cadwell and also scrub the brand new 090s in, but after only about 15 miles the mist was so think I just turned around and came home. Having said that it was clear the bike runs well and the tyres are just about scrubbed in now.

Only 2 days to go before setting off for the UK so I guess the pressure of deadlines works as both bikes were finally loaded up onto the trailer.

Well I had a cracking time at Cadwell Park both on the track and catching up with so many of the 400 fraternity. Maybe not the most conventional way to shakedown a bike after a rebuild, but she did me proud and never missed a beat all weekend.

I will quickly gloss over the fact that whilst sorting the bike out once I got home, I discovered the rear wheel nut was only finger tight and it was probably only the R clip that had kept the rear wheel on the bike the whole weekend.

That aside, and apart from a bloody good clean, I swapped the multi-coloured track day fairings of my other bike and refitted my posh Rothmans fairings to that one. As they were both clean and I realised this might be the last time for a while that they are together as a brace of Rothmans… I stuck them in the garden for a quick pic.

I was about to start stripping the (Chinese) fairings of the project bike to refit the silhouette ones it will have in the end ready for when the stickers arrive, when I had a thought. Because of being in Germany with work I have to jump through several additional hoops to get my vehicles registered and on the road. One of these is the TüV, which is the local equivalent of the MOT. Anyway as the bike was sat there, complete and in full working order I thought might as well get it TüV’d now as I was still waiting for the stickers. Appointment made and a quick trip up to Monchengladbach as the tester there understands the system I have to navigate and what is required.

This was the same guy who tested my other bike last year and he came out and looked at the bike quizzically (as a TüV last for 2 years) and said “I did this one just last year didn’t I?”. I explained this was the twin of the other one and showed him a photo of the two together. He laughed and said “is it as good as the other one?” to which I said “No…its better I built it from scratch” to which he just rolled his eyes and said “come on then, lets go do the paperwork” – TüV passed

Back home and it was a lovely weekend in fact possibly a bit too nice. Inside my metal garage it was getting a bit too warm to work and I was starting to feel like a prisoner in one of those metal boxes in Japanese POW camps.

Plan B – move outside and whilst it was still cracking 30 degrees a little bit of breeze and the shade from the apple tree made it a lot better for working.

Chinese Rothmans fairing all stripped off ready to fit the Silhouette fairings. Before fitting anything (following Oli’s advice) I upgraded the heat shielding inside the belly pan with some pucker heat shield tape.

Something I had noticed previously was that I had fitted the mudguard mounts on the front forks upside down. Whilst all the logic in my brain (still) tells me it shouldn’t make a difference and the holes should still line up they don’t and though you could force it to fit, it is not right. Whilst flipping them over is a 10 second job it does of course mean dropping the forks out which meant removing the front wheel, brakes, clip-ons etc. Well it needed doing and it was a nice day so that ate up an hour or so but at least it is done now – and yes the holes line up perfectly with the mudguard.

Once that was done the fairings were fitted and by the end of the day this is where I was.

Sunday and I got another couple of hours in the garage. I am just waiting for the stickers to arrive and once they are all in place the painter at work is going to clear coat everything. However on the fairings there was a few areas which seemed to have some overspray on them from when the white panels were painted. Out came the Fereccla and after about an hour all the overspray was removed.

The only thing left that I could get on with then was the fine line tape I had got to edge the number boards. I think it realluy gives a crisp finish to the look, plus it covers up where the white board edges were not 100%. I had never done this before but having watched a couple of YouTube videos and bought some tape I figured I would give it a go.

Before

..and after

I might be biased, but I am really happy with how they have turned out. Nothing more to do at the moment as the stickers are on the way and the wheels are already with the painter. Glad there is Moto GP today to keep me amused